Thank You, Deeply

Dear Syria Deeply Community,

Syria Deeply was born to fill a gap that had been keeping people in Syria, and their stories, isolated from
the rest of the world. Our mission was to highlight Syrian voices and perspectives through independent
journalism that made sense of Syria’s complex and brutal conflict. For nearly six years, we have kept a close
watch on both the humanitarian crisis and the political factors – global and domestic – that were escalating
the war.

The lessons learned from Syria’s war will define modern conflict and how it is resolved. Conversely, the
approaches for peacebuilding that have worked elsewhere will be vital to Syria’s future.

With this in mind, we are taking a new approach to delivering on our original mission. Syria Deeply’s coverage
and editorial team will be folded into a new endeavor: Peacebuilding Deeply.

We are humbled by the engagement and dedication of Syria Deeply’s readers and contributors over the years.
Because of your support, Syria Deeply evolved from a news site to a platform to exchange ideas and bridge
perspectives on vital issues.

Syria Deeply’s trove of existing coverage will remain available through an archived version of the site. We
also plan to launch special initiatives focused specifically on Syria, from dedicated research projects and
reporting tracks to roundtable discussions around the world.

Though we now have a new home, our expertise and passion about Syria will be a constant. We are always willing
to share our knowledge, answer questions and help advance the discussion about a country and people incredibly
close to our hearts.

Inside Ain al-Issa: Hunting for ISIS in the North Raqqa IDP Camp

In the second of a two-part series, we report on Kurdish-led forces’ rigorous security screening procedures at the Ain al-Issa IDP camp that aim to weed out potential ISIS fighters from the thousands of civilians fleeing militant-held territory every day.

Aisha al-Ali and her husband fled Raqqa over five months ago. But her husband was arrested upon arrival at Ain al-Issa IDP camp, where she now remains, waiting for news of his fate.Wladimir van Wilgenburg

AINAL–ISSA, Syria – Aisha al-Ali has not spoken to or seen her husband since the couple fled Raqqa just before violence gripped the so-called Islamic State’s (ISIS) stronghold. The 30-year-old said the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) detained her husband in a camp for internally displaced people north of Raqqa city five months ago. She hasn’t had any news of him since.

Al-Ali said that her husband and a number of other newcomers were rounded up for a standard security screening when they first arrived at Ain al-Issa camp. This was not unusual. Of the roughly 324,000 people who fled Raqqa and the surrounding areas since the SDF and the U.S.-led coalition began their assault on ISIS, many have been screened at the facility.

The camp is a major transit point for civilians fleeing ISIS-held territory and heading to SDF-controlled areas of northern Syria. At the height of the influx in May, some 1,500 new arrivals were screened and processed at the camp each day. At that time, “the majority of those entering the site [left] within a matter of days,” according to a June report from the Syria Protection Cluster, a body chaired by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

But al-Ali’s husband was arrested. As of late August, he had yet to be released, and she remained in limbo in Ain al-Issa camp, she told Syria Deeply last month.

She said her husband was detained because of his purported links to ISIS, but al-Ali dismissed the charges, saying that he is a former fighter for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and was even wounded in the eye by shrapnel while fighting alongside rebels in Raqqa. He also comes from a family of government employees.

“We do not have relatives who joined ISIS; all my husband’s brothers were employees of the Syrian government, and he was also an employee of the municipality,” she said.

What’s more, ISIS had detained him for three months in Raqqa because of his links to the FSA. The couple fled the embattled northern city shortly after he was released.

Although screening for ISIS fighters is not an exact science, security officials say only those with links to the jihadist group are arrested after investigation.

“When refugees come to us from Raqqa, Deir Ezzor or any other areas, they first register their name on paper through the office of entry into the camp. The paper is then sent to the internal security forces to investigate,” Idris Mohammed, a spokesperson for the SDF-affiliated Raqqa Internal Security Forces, said.

After an initial investigation, those who have been cleared are granted permits allowing them to pass through checkpoints into SDF-held areas, he added.

However, some humanitarian organizations claim that the screening procedures result in limited freedom of movement – or even take it away altogether.

“While humanitarian actors recognize that these procedures are aimed at reducing security risks associated with ISIS, it is recognized that their implementation also raises protection risks for IDPs. The most prominent risks are lack of freedom of movement and lack of access to basic services and healthcare,” the Syria Protection Cluster report said.

According to Mohammed, the measures are necessary, and the SDF does not prevent displaced people from moving on to other areas.

The SDF and Raqqa Civil Council are responsible for security screenings at the IDP camps, with the SDF largely undertaking security checks in Ain al-Issa, according to the Syrian Protection Cluster.

IDPs must go through an identity check and, in some cases, also show that they have a sponsor in order to be granted freedom of movement. For those over the age of 18, failing to produce an identity document risks “arbitrary detention,” the report said.

According to Mohammed, women are not investigated. Only young men are screened for possible links to the extremist group – taking into consideration factors such as battle wounds and suspicious clothing. Investigations typically take between 24 and 36 hours if a person is cleared, he said.

Officials in the camp claim they recognize that some young men were forced to join ISIS, especially since the group provided a livelihood in times of war.

“We can say that those who worked with ISIS for money will be released, but those who took up arms and stained their hands with the blood of the Syrian people will not be released,” Mohammed said.

“We can say that those who worked with ISIS for money will be released, but those who took up arms and stained their hands with the blood of the Syrian people will not be released.”

Omar Alloush, the joint head of public relations at Raqqa council, told Syria Deeply that many of the suspected ISIS members released by the group were handed over to local tribes, whose leaders gave “tribal guarantees” that these men would not return to the extremist group.

Last month a local tribe lobbied the civil court to release Ahmed Ibrahim, a 21-year-old Raqqa resident, and 22 other ISIS suspects who had spent a month and a half in SDF prisons.

“We are now moving to a camp in Abu Ahid, and my family is in Karama [camp]. I will return to Raqqa after it’s liberated,” Ibrahim said.

Although some suspects have been released from detention and thousands of IDPs have passed the security screening, the number of displaced people keeps growing due to the recent offensive in Deir Ezzor and ISIS’s forced conscription of men. To keep up with IDP arrivals, local authorities recently opened a second camp in Ain al-Issa that has roughly 100 tents.

At Ain al-Issa, “there are new arrivals every day,” Arnaud Fablet, emergency coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in a recent report from the humanitarian organization.

Abu Ali, an IDP from Abu Kamal, had been waiting in Ain al-Issa for his security screening to be complete for two days when Syria Deeply spoke to him earlier this month. He was also hoping to obtain permission to travel to either Azaz or Idlib, where he had already sent other family members.

“When we leave our homes, Daesh come and take them. We ran away from ISIS recruitment, left our families and wanted to go to Azaz to work and send money to our families, but they did not let us leave the camp,” he said.

Many IDPs leave Ain al-Issa in search of work elsewhere in northern Syria. Another displaced civilian from the city of Abu Kamal in Deir Ezzor, who requested anonymity for security reasons, is hoping to leave Ain al-Issa and find work in Azaz, in northern Aleppo. His financial situation is now dire, he said, after he paid “smugglers” 900,000 Syrian pounds ($1,750 USD) to flee ISIS-held territory.

“When we leave our homes, Daesh come and take them. We ran away from ISIS recruitment, left our families and wanted to go to Azaz to work and send money to our families but they did not let us leave the camp.”

But for some, Ain al-Issa is the final destination. “There were people who left the camp, but found no work, and returned to the camp to wait until Raqqa is liberated,” security official Mohammed said.

Others have not had the option of leaving. Such is the case for al-Ali and many other women who “are waiting for the end of the investigation of their detained husbands in Kobani,” Taher Halaq, a 50-year-old IDP from Raqqa who has been living in Ain al-Issa for three months, said.

Aisha Kadad’s husband has been detained for three and a half months, suspected of being a foreign ISIS fighter. The 30-year-old claims that her husband, a Moroccan national, left the militant group. However, he has been detained for longer than the Syrian members of ISIS’s security force.

“The [ISIS security] of Raqqa were released after three months in jail – why is my husband still in jail?” Kadad asked.

About the Author

Wladimir van Wilgenburg is an analyst of Kurdish politics for the Jamestown Foundation and a freelance journalist. He is currently reporting from Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan and is currently co-writing a book on Syrian Kurds based on months of field research in northern Syria.

Republish this article

Our mission is to empower stakeholders and the wider public with high quality information, insights, and analysis on critical global issues. To help achieve this, we encourage you to republish the text of any article that contains a Republish button on your own news outlet.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines. Click to expand

In republishing any of our articles:

Ensure that you include a line of our HTML tracking code on every article you republish. This is a lightweight, efficient way for us to see the number of page views of each specific article published on our partners’ websites. This does not affect page layout, nor does it provide any information about your users, other web pages on your site, or any further data. By copying and pasting the HTML code in the box below, the tracking code is automatically included.

If, for any reason, you do not copy the code prepared for you, you must paste this code snippet into the end of the article in your CMS:

Note at the top and/or bottom of the story that it originally appeared on Syria Deeply. This note should include a direct link to the original article and a sentence that offers the reader the opportunity to join the Syria’s mailing list. Our recommended example is:

This should read : “This article originally appeared on Syria Deeply. You can find the original here. For important news about the war in Syria, you can sign up to the Syria email list.”

Do not republish a photo without our written permission. Some sources don't allow their images to be republished without permission.

Do not translate a story into another language without our written permission.

We often republish pieces from our partners. If you want to republish a partner’s story, you must credit the original partner and include a “via News Deeply” link.

Note that News Deeply considers the publication date to be the date marked on the story, and is not responsible for any content that you choose to repost.

After republication on the partner website, if you make an accompanying post on social media referencing the republished article, you must include the relevant Deeply social media handle in such post. For example, (i) for Twitter posts this means adding the appropriate @Deeply tag such as @SyriaDeeply, @WaterDeeply, or @WomensGirlsHub and (ii) for Facebook this means tagging the appropriate Deeply page in your Facebook post.

News Deeply material may not to be provided, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, to third parties or affiliates for redistribution through those entities, unless you have received prior written approval from News Deeply.

You may not automatically or systematically republish any material from our sites; all stories must be chosen individually for republishing.

You may not sell our content or republish it for commercial purposes without our prior written consent.

We reserve the right to request that any partner ceases republication of our content, including but not limited to if the guidelines listed above not being followed.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact community@newsdeeply.com